B. Geography and Environment of Nubia

1. Land

Like Egypt, Nubia has always depended for its existence on the Nile, and most people have always lived beside the river. Although the land along the river is very fertile, the Nubian flood plain is much narrower than in Egypt, meaning that the land has always been less productive than Egypt, and the population has always been smaller.

In Nubia all the land nearest the river is intensely farmed and irrigated; vegitables are even planted at the bases of date palms and fruit trees to maximize land use. In ancient times the growing of crops was possible only during the early fall, after the summer rains and after the Nile had flooded its banks. As the water gradually receded, farmers could raise less and less water to the fields, and thus little more could be grown until the following year. With the invention of the shaduf (the water lift) about 1600 BC and the saqia (the ox-driven waterwheel) in Roman times, some land could be irrigated even during the dry season, and this resulted in limited but continuous crop yield. Today such primitive machines have been replaced by motorized pumps, which make full-scale agriculture possible all year round.

In northern (Egyptian) Nubia, the land on either side of the Nile is absolute desert. Nothing grows there, since it never rains. Southward in Sudan, occasional summer rains in the deserts cause large areas to be covered with hardy grasses and stunted trees. These, and the manmade wells spaced at intervals along well-traveled tracks, allow small bands of nomads to dwell permanently here and to eke out a meagre existence tending small herds of goats and camels. Just south of Khartoum, where the summer rains become increasingly heavy, the deserts become forests of acacias and gum trees.

2. River

In Nubia the Nile is not the convenient water highway that it is in Egypt. Here the riverbed is narrow and often treacherous, and the current swift. The most notable features of the Nubian Nile are its frequent stretches of rocks and rapids, called "cataracts", of which (before the Aswan Dam) there were six numbered cataracts between Aswan (the First Cataract) to Shabaluka Gorge (the Sixth, about 40 miles [66 km] downstream from Khartoum). These numbers, however, are actually misleading since they designate long stretches of rapids rather than individual river obstacles. In fact, prior to the construction of the Aswan Dam, there were in reality more than thirty individual cataracts in the river. Adding to the boatman's difficulties is the Nile's great meander in the northern Sudan, where, for a stretch of about 150 miles (250 km) the river nearly reverses direction. Here any ship trying to sail upstream must move not only against a swift current but also against the prevailing north wind. It was such complications of river travel that isolated Nubia from the outside world for centuries and even isolated parts of it from itself, giving it cultures quite distinct from Egypt.

Fed by the Blue and White Niles, which converge at Khartoum, and by rains in central Africa, the main Nile begins to flood in mid-summer, reaching its maximum levels in late August. It then slowly recedes until the following summer, when the cycle repeats. It was the first rising of the Nile in mid- or late July that was anciently celebrated as the start of the New Year.

3. Climate and Seasons

In Egyptian Nubia, the climate is hot, dry and rainless throughout the year. In Sudanese Nubia, it rains occasionally in late summer, and the further south one travels, the greater the rainfall. It is the rains in central Africa that cause the Nile to flood. In the vicinity of Khartoum and in the deserts north, west and east of the city, rainstorms can occur anytime from the middle of June to the end of September. Average annual rainfall at Khartoum is about 5 inches (8.5 cm). Rainstorms here, however, are usually very violent and are often preceded by strong winds and duststorms, locally called "haboobs." Occasionally the dry riverbeds in the deserts become suddenly swollen with water, which can cause major flood damage in the deserts.

During much of the year the prevailing wind blows from the north or northeast. During the spring months, when temperatures begin to rise, this wind can blow violently, causing dust storms. Only during the summer months does the wind blow from the south or southwest, and these winds are associated with scorching heat and destructive rains. These phenomena had ancient mythological associations. The brutal summer heat was identified as the flaming breath of the fierce lioness goddess Sekhmet, who, it was believed, sought to destroy mankind and had to be appeased with elaborate rituals to ensure that the Nile would rise and each new year would begin again in July. After the start of the New Year and the inundation, it was Tefnut, lioness goddess of moisture and rains and floods, whom man had to fear, and she too had to be appeased with prayer. The cooling north winds of fall were identified with the God Shu ("Wind"), who was thought to have come from Egypt to Nubia to pacify Tefnut, his sister, to have transformed her into a gentler being, and to have carried her off to Egypt, and to have married her. They then became the parents of all the great gods.

Throughout Nubia during the winter months, the daytime temperatures are comfortable; at night they can get quite cold but seldom reach freezing. During summer, the daytime temperatures can exceed 120o (45¡ Celsius). Most of the year the people rise at dawn and work during the cooler morning hours. During the afternoons, most people retreat to their homes for shade and sleep.

4. Ecology

Considerable change has taken place in the climate and environment of the Nubian Nile Valley from ancient times to the present. Eight thousand years ago the region was much wetter and the deserts had far greater rainfall. As evidenced by rock drawings in the lifeless deserts west of the Nile, the land once supported herds of wild and domesticated animals and nomadic cattle-herdsmen. Major branches of the Nile once flowed into the river from the west. These, which have been dry for thousands of years, were lined with villages. The main course of the Nile has also shifted over the millennia.

As recently as the third century BC, stone towns with temples and plantations were built up to 15 miles (25 km) east of the river. Their survival was ensured by ample summer rainfall, which was gathered in large artificial catchbasins called "hafirs", some of which were ringed with statues of frogs. Today, however, so little rain falls here that no such settlements could survive. Mero‘, the ancient capital of Kush, built along the Nile, may have declined as a city in the third and fourth centuries AD when its people over-cut the local forests for fuelling their iron smelters and firing their bricks. Such practices would have led to the rapid desertification of the region. Until very recently, wild animals were abundant in Nubia, but with the introduction of the firearm in the nineteenth century they have been hunted virtually to extinction.

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